Has Speedy hire turned the corner?
It's looking interesting. Any thoughts?
Takeover time?

Can you see the end of the tunnel? Company believe so, but will have to wait for it.......

Speedy positive

Speedy Hire has made a positive start to year and believes its strategy and recovery plan provide the platform for full-year results to be slightly ahead of directors' views.

Revenues in the first quarter ended 30 June 2016 slightly ahead of the comparable period.

The Group is following a disciplined approach to bidding and has retained a number of major framework contracts since the start of the financial year.

Utilisation rates increased to 50% by the end of the period. As previously reported, overhead costs are significantly lower than in the prior year.

Net Debt at 30 June was lower than the corresponding period last year. The Group continues to have substantial headroom against its banking facilities, which expire in September 2019.

"It is too early to assess with any degree of certainty what impact the EU referendum result will have on the Group's end markets but, to date, there has been no deterioration in trading," the company said in a statement.

"The Board believes that the Group's strategy and recovery plan provide the platform for full year results to be slightly ahead of the Board's previous expectations."

StockMarketWire.com
Speedy Hire has booked an H1 pretax loss of £5.4m, from a loss of £13.5m. It improved its interim dividend to 0.33p a share, from 0.3p.

Group revenue rose to £187.1m, from £165.0m.

"These encouraging interim results confirm that our recovery is well established," said CEO Russell Down in a statement.

"We are now focussed on the strategic development of the business over the medium-term and are implementing a range of customer service initiatives to ensure that Speedy is competitively positioned to grow profitable market share.

"Reflecting the progress the Group has made, we now expect results for the full year to be ahead of the Board's previous expectations."

StockMarketWire.com
Tool hire business Speedy Hire reported group revenues for the third quarter on a like-for-like basis (pre-disposal) were 10.6% ahead of the prior year.

The company benefitted from the timing of the Christmas holiday period. Its recovery plan to improve the efficiency of operations remained on track with reduced overheads, and rental assets and net debt both lower than at the half year end.

Speedy Hire announced the acquisition of the brand, business and assets of Lloyds British Testing on 19 December 2016.

Management said integration was progressing well with several revenue and cost synergies expected to be realised.

Speedy implemented several customer service initiatives which led to improving revenue and the retention of major framework contracts.

These included a contract renewal and scope extension, with Carillion, which could be worth up to £45m over three years.

Due to improving revenue trend and better operational efficiency, the Board anticipates that adjusted profit before tax for the full year will be ahead of its previous expectations.

Insider: Bosses confident of repeat success - By Lee Wild | Fri, 10th February 2017

Speedy going Hire

If proof were needed that director share purchases matter when making investment decisions, heavy buying by Speedy Hire's (SDY) top brass back in November was a classic example.

Shares in the tool hire firm crashed over 60% in 2015 following a series of profit warnings in 2015 triggered by internal issues and a lull in demand across the industry. Their high fixed costs always hurt when business dries up.

Speedy lost its chief executive, and the new board fought off an attempted coup by activist shareholder Toscafund.

A turnaround programme, including heavy cost-cutting, was clearly bearing fruit and, in last November's half-year results, new boss Russell Down said full year numbers would be ahead of the expectations.

Chairman Jan Åstrand, who survived the Toscafund revolt, bought 150,000 shares at between 40.5p and 44.6p, finance director Chris Morgan had almost 118,000 at 43p, and new non-executive director David Shearer - a turnaround expert backed by Toscafund - acquired 100,000 at 42.5p.

They're all sitting pretty now, counting paper profits in the tens of thousands. Investors who followed are too. Now, after Tuesday's upbeat trading statement, they're at it again.



Morgan has just bought 61,929 Speedy shares at 51.875p and non-exec Bob Contreras has picked up 40,000 at 51.93p.

It's because third-quarter like-for-like revenue grew by 10.6%, benefitting partly from the timing of Christmas holidays. Overheads, rental assets and net debt are all down, and customer service initiatives are winning new business and keeping existing contracts. It's why, again, adjusted profit before tax for the full year will be ahead of its previous expectations.

That meant double-digit upgrades to Panmure Gordon analyst Adrian Kearsey's estimates. He now pencils in March 2017 profit of £14.3 million, up from £12.8 million previously, and an extra £1.1 million for 2018 at £19.4 million.

"The turnaround in the operational performance is likely to stimulate another improvement in sentiment towards Speedy Hire," he says. "After many years of disappointing this business appears on the right track."

Trading Update

Speedy, the UK's leading tools, equipment and plant hire services company, operating across the construction, infrastructure and industrial markets, today issues an update on its trading performance for the year ending 31 March 2017. The Group's full year results are scheduled to be announced on 16 May 2017.

Group revenues, excluding disposals, for the full year are expected to be approximately 7% ahead of the prior year. Adjusted profit before tax is expected to be in line with the Board's expectations at the time of the last trading update on 7 February 2017, well ahead of the prior year. As previously reported, the Group's hire fleet has been substantially reduced, resulting in an improvement in Return on Capital Employed. Net debt at 31 March 2017 is expected to be less than £80m. This is significantly lower than the prior year and after funding the Lloyds British acquisition.

Peel Hunt today reaffirms its buy investment rating on Speedy Hire PLC (LON:SDY) and set its price target at 65p.

StockMarketWire.com
Tools and equipment hire company Speedy Hire said adjusted pre-tax profits were expected to be ahead of its previous expectations.

Revenue, before disposals, was expected to grow by 6%, amid a renewed focus on small business customers, the company said.

Return on capital employed for the year was expected to be around 11%, up from 7.7%, amid a continued reduction in the size of the group's fleet.

Average asset utilisation for the 11 months to February 2018 was 55.4%, up 4.3% from the prior year.

Net debt at 31 March was expected to be approximately £80m after expenditure of £23m on acquisitions.

StockMarketWire.com
Tools and equipment hire group Speedy Hire posted a 25% rise in annual profit as UK construction markets remained buoyant.

Pre-tax profit rose to £18m, as revenue rose 2.2% to £377.4m.

Adjust pre-tax profit rose 60% to £25.9m and the company hiked its dividend for the year by 65% to 1.65p per share.

'We are delighted with these results which reflect a strong operational performance, robust capital management, the benefits of the strategy which was launched in September 2015, the impact of our recovery initiatives and some earlier-than-expected acquisition synergies,' chief executive Russell Down said.

'The market remains competitive; however the current year has got off to an encouraging start with revenue ahead of the comparative period on a like for like basis.'

'Whilst we are early into the new financial year, and some of the benefits from the acquisitions have been realised, we are confident of delivering further progress in the year ahead in line with our current expectations.'

StockMarketWire.com
Leading tool and equipment hire provider Speedy said the group remained on track to deliver full-year results in line with the Board's expectations and announced the appointment of David Shearer as Chairman from 1 October.

Ahead of its AGM later on Thursday, the Group said revenue for the first quarter of the year ending 31 March, pre disposals, increased by 6.6% on the prior year. Hire revenue and services revenues grew by 5.5% and 8.4%, respectively.

UK and Ireland hire revenue, meanwhile, increased by approximately 1% on a like-for-like basis, while the international business also continued to perform well, with a strong pipeline of opportunities.

The Group invested around £15.2m in the first quarter on new equipment for hire, up 4.0% on the prior year. Expenditure continued to be carefully targeted with average asset utilisation rates increasing to 55.7%, on a rolling 12-month basis.

Net debt at 30 June of £67.0m was lower than at year-end (£69.4m), while ROCE for the 12 months to 30 June was 11.8% (30 June 2017: 8.4%).

Outgoing Chairman Jan Astrand will remain as a Non-Executive Director of the Company and member of the Nomination Committee until 31 October 2018.

StockMarketWire.com
Tools and equipment rental group Speedy Hire more than doubled its first-half profit after it grew its customer base.

Pre-tax profit for the six months through September rose to £13.2m, up from £6.0m on-year.

Revenue rose 6% to £194.6m and adjusted profit, which excluded proceeds from asset sales, increased 26% to £13.4m.

Speedy Hire declared an interim dividend of 0.60p per share, up 20% on-year.

'These results demonstrate the progress we have made in implementing a customer focused strategy and growing our SME customer base,' chief executive Russell Down said.

'We have further improved our customer service proposition and the use of technology to better manage the business and meet market challenges.'

'We remain confident of delivering a result for the full year in line with our expectations.'